(Exercise stress tests suggest a process that provides energy to the brain during exercise and intense mental activity may be broken and causing severe cognitive dysfunction in one group of GWS/ME/CFS patients (decreasers). A second GWS/ME/CFS group (increasers) with an intact brain lactate processing in the brain actually improves their cognitive functioning during exercise. Baraniuk’s team is finding multiple irregularities in brain function in some people GWS and ME/CFS The high brain lactate levels found at rest in all GWS patients suggest metabolic or mitochondrial problems may be present (and validate the high lactate readings found in prior ME/CFS studies). A trend towards differing glutamine/glutamate ratio’s in the two groups suggests high extracellular glutamate levels may cause cognitive problems by interfering with nervous system transmission. The authors push for similar studies in chronic fatigue syndrome.) Veterans with Gulf War Illness (GWI) present with symptoms of cognitive dysfunction, chronic fatigue, and widespread pain that overlap with a larger group of idiopathic illnesses that include Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) and Fibromyalgia. Raynal, Baraniuk et. al. Gulf War Illness with a Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Emphasis – You’ve got to love how Baraniuk starts his papers. This study is on Gulf War Syndrome or, as he calls it, Chronic Multisymptom Illness (CMI). But in the very first paragraph of this one he highlights both fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. Then he gets the ‘fatigue’ in ME/CFS just right by calling it ‘exertional exhaustion’.

Here I am again, dispirited, in bed for almost two weeks and barely able to make dinner because of a recent crash. Overconfident and stupid, I forgot about pacing after over a year of just minor relapses and quick recoveries. First came the week-end of the garage sale, then the scheduled colonoscopy on Tuesday with the preparation everyone dreads on Monday, then Wednesday morning brunch at my house for some friends. Too much activity lead Carol to the inevitable ‘crash’ By Wednesday afternoon, I had collapsed and the aches had begun. After canceling activities for a few days, I felt a bit stronger. So then came the yearly dinner for Steve’s former law clerks at our house the next Thursday; though we brought in food, I felt the continual pressures for hostessing. Friday morning — an unexpected and traumatic funeral. Friday night neighbors came to help us eat the leftovers from Thursday. And Saturday I had promised Steve I’d go with him to the Rutgers football game. He’s an avid fan with season’s tickets and club seats; though I felt lousy in the morning, I felt more guilty that he’d have no companion, and besides, I was looking forward to the enthusiasm and noisy distractions, along with the great half-time hot dogs. Flat on my back. Aches and fatigue squeeze my arms and legs. I feel feverish, flu-y. My joints burn. I sweat. A meat tenderizer pounds weakness and wooziness inside my skull. In the comic book illustration, after the BAM! when Bugs Bunny whomps Elmer Fudd over the head with a mallet, Elmer lies on the floor with tweety birds flying in circles over his head. I’m Elmer. The tweety birds are thoughts that used to make sense. I can’t read, cook, write, see friends, go out for dinner or a movie. I can barely watch stupid television.

4. August 2013Busted! Exercise Study Finds Energy Production System Broken in ME/CFS(Englisch)

Keep your eyes on the oxygen molecule. Your body thrives on it. It’s at the heart of your aerobic energy production system. When it’s working correctly you’re filled with clean, abundant energy. When its not you’re in trouble.

exercise bike testYou have a clean and efficient energy producing system and a ‘dirty and inefficient energy producing system. Guess which one is broken in ME/CFS?

Multiple systems explode into action in order to get that oxygen to your muscles when you exercise. You breath more deeply and your heart pumps harder and faster to transport it just as quickly as it can to your cells. That heart/lung/muscle connection is the oxygen highway.